Seifert Gets Win, Gives Nothing Away

IRA MILLER

Published
4:00 am PDT, Monday, October 18, 1999

NOW THE game finally was over, and George Seifert was collecting hugs on the field. First, his daughter, Eve, raced into his arms. Then, as he was walking toward the locker room, Jerry Rice stopped him for a moment and they embraced. Seifert's face was almost blank. He said he rarely was this drained after a game, any game, but, oh by the way, this was nothing personally special.

Of course, it wasn't.

Seifert was stoic as ever yesterday. On the sideline, behind the trademark dark glasses, he never gave away his emotions. When the Panthers recovered an onside kickoff with 1:28 remaining and it looked like the game was clinched, Seifert half-heartedly thrust his right fist into the air. But it was a weak motion, almost embarrassing, out of character, and then he quickly got back to being stoic George.

As it turned out, of course, the game wasn't clinched until the final play.

This was Seifert's story and he was sticking to it: He was just another coach returning to the city where he grew up and the stadium where he achieved coaching success and now he was achieving 100 regular-season NFL victories faster than any coach in history. Special? Nah, Seifert said, over and over. We just needed a win, he said, meaning the Panthers, not himself.

So he wouldn't say it, but his daughter did.

"I think it was a real special win for him," she said. "It was a special win for all of us."

"I loved seeing the emotion on her face," Seifert said.

Someone in the family had to show some emotion. George certainly didn't want anyone to peer behind those dark glasses yesterday. This was his 133rd regular- season game as an NFL head coach, and he has seemed the same after almost all of them -- the 100 victories, the 33 defeats. Don Shula, who needed 135 games to win 100, now is the second-fastest coach to 100.

But to know what happened, you have to look at the scoreboard, not at Seifert.

"Same old George," said Panthers cornerback Eric Davis, who broke into the NFL with the 49ers under Seifert. "He'll probably go home tonight and scream, but you know he's not going to let us see it."

The 49ers hadn't lost a regular-season home game since 1996. The team that beat them was these same Carolina Panthers. The 49ers' coach at the time, the losing coach, was George Seifert. It was a wretched game, a game in which the 49ers lost their division title to a second-year expansion team and set a team record (since broken) for penalties in a game.

A month later, Seifert was the 49ers' ex-coach. Pressed in a private moment in his locker room after yesterday's game, he finally had to 'fess up that, yes, that memory had crossed his mind because that loss to Carolina had led to his exodus.

"A lot of it contributed within my heart to what happened," he said. He admitted he didn't know what went through the mind of owner Eddie DeBartolo, who was holding open the door at the same time Seifert was looking for the exit. But then Seifert added, "I know what happened in my heart. I felt I lost the club in that game. Basically, you're ashamed of those things. That's the coach's responsibility.

"Then, to come in here and win this game, it's not only important (because the Panthers would have fallen to 1-4 with a defeat), but a little side issue like that is meaningful, too."

And that was as close as he would come to showing feeling.

Seifert is nothing if not professional. With a bye last weekend, the Panthers had two weeks to prepare for the 49ers, but Seifert managed to keep the attention on the team, not on himself. Offensive line coach Tony Wise said, "He kind of took everything in stride," adding, "He was awfully calm through the whole thing."

To the players, Seifert sent out the message this was "just another game," but one they had to win to keep their season from going South. In other words, win because you need a win, don't win for me.

"He tends to stick to his guns, but you know, there's a lot to be said about consistency," Davis said. "I'm sure it was something special to him, but what happened is we were in a situation where we really needed a win, and that took over. We needed to find a way to win a game."

John Marshall, the defensive coordinator, added, "He did a great job with that. He kept the focus totally on the game. He did it just right. He said we needed to get a win for the team, and he was right. It's how you orient the guys. You don't get on some emotional roll. You win with your football. That was our emphasis."

Because of Seifert's approach, the personal cheering section was small. There was his daughter and son-in- law, and some friends from the Peninsula and Bodega Bay. Even Seifert's wife, Linda, stayed behind, watching the game on TV in Charlotte. A stream of well-wishers came by after the game to shake his hand, including some of the 49ers' coaches and a few team employees, but otherwise, this was like any other post-game scene in the locker room.

Seifert seemed drained. He knows his team, like the 49ers these days, lacks talent. Every game is a fight. The Panthers twice have lost games by the margin of missed, two-point conversions. Now they finally have won one by the same margin. It doesn't make the season, but it does make for some satisfaction. Now Seifert's new team finally has learned something his old team always knew: All the work is for a reason.

"You get up there in front of your club each Monday and tell them to hang in there," Seifert said. "How many times can I do that? Today, we made the plays and we did it."